RALEIGH, N.C. — The most important number from the most important regular-season victory of coach Mark Gottfried's thrill-a-minute two-year tenure at NC State doesn't exactly jump off the box score.

Without context, in fact, it's rather pedestrian.

The most important number of the No. 20 Wolfpack's 84-76 victory against the No. 1 Duke Blue Devils in front of a sold-out crowd at PNC Arena isn't 25 — C.J. Leslie's game-high point total. Neither is it 13 — Lorenzo Brown's game-high assist total.

The most important number is 38, and it belongs to Richard Howell, NC State's 6-8 senior forward. Howell played 38 minutes against the Blue Devils. Simple, but huge.

Here's your context. Howell has always been productive when he's on the court, but he has long been one of college basketball's most foul-prone players. Heading into Saturday's ACC showdown against Duke, Howell had fouled out four times this season. As a junior, he had at least four fouls in 19 games.

"If he's sitting over there with four," Gottfried said after a huge victory, "we're a little more vulnerable."

When Howell is on the court, the Wolfpack are an elite team. When he's not, they aren't. It's pretty clear-cut for a team that doesn't have much depth. In No. 20 NC State's losses against Oklahoma State and Michigan, Howell played a total of 35 minutes — 16 against Oklahoma State and 19 against Michigan — and fouled out of both games.

"It's not even me scoring and not even me rebounding," Howell said, "but I feel like it's very important just for my to be out there with my teammates."

His leadership is undeniable.

But with all due respect to Howell, his scoring and rebounding are pretty important, too. On Saturday, he finished with 16 points and 18 rebounds in those 38 minutes, and he had just two fouls, one in each half. He was, as Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski called him, "a beast" against the Blue Devils.

The thing about Howell that often infuriates NC State fans is that his foul troubles stem from bad decisions — greedy decisions, as Howell calls them — instead of a lack of skill. It's not that he crashes into defenders when driving to the basket or wildly hacks opposing big men when he's playing defense. His body control, for a forward who's built like a linebacker, is nothing short of amazing.

His foul issues are often about self-control.

"There was one today where I fouled, and as soon as I fouled, I didn't even want to look at Coach Gottfried because I knew what he was going to say," Howell said with a laugh. "It's just a matter of me wanting the ball. I'm greedy, especially when it's right in front of my face. I feel like I have the quickest hands, so I want to try and get it. I definitely made that mistake a few times today, but luckily I kept my hands to myself, and it played out."

Because Howell kept his hands to himself, he stayed on the court. And that presented a new, but wonderful, dilemma for his coach — how could Gottfried find ways to give his big man a breather down the stretch?

"I kept saying to myself, 'I've got to get him out,' " Gottfried said. "And then I kept saying, 'I ain't taking him out, I don't care. He's staying in the game even if I've got to use every time out,' because he was rebounding the ball."

NC State had 19 rebounds in the second half; of those, Howell had 14.

Duke had outrebounded the Wolfpack 22-15 in the first half — the Blue Devils had 11 offensive boards, too — and Gottfried made a point of that at halftime.

"I took full responsibility for that," Howell said. "That's why I wanted to come out the next half and make sure that we didn't end the game with them winning (big) on the boards."

Howell opened the second half with offensive rebounds and put-back layups on NC State's first two possessions. He rebounded Duke's first two misses, too, for good measure.

Howell's 14 second-half rebounds were one more than the entire Duke team, and just two of Duke's second-half rebounds were of the offensive variety.